


The Lines of Love in Circles and Angles

by slash4femme



Series: With Time [2]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Charlie can't live without it, Commitment, Larry hates it, M/M, and sexy times, there is family arguments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 05:48:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1376149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slash4femme/pseuds/slash4femme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next step in their relationship is marriage which could be problematic <strong></strong></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lines of Love in Circles and Angles

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in November 2009 
> 
> Written for the prompt 'the twenty-third time' for the group [](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/profile)[**24_times**](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/) . All of the stories written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/profile)[**24_times**](http://community.livejournal.com/24_times/) will have titles taken from the song _Love's Lines, Angles and Rhyme_ s. Written for [](http://cardiac-logic.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://cardiac-logic.livejournal.com/)**cardiac_logic** , who deserves a hell of a lot more gifts from me all things considered.

I.

“You know what I’d like?” Alan says moving his bishop across the board.

“I have no idea.” Larry tells him honestly half his mind on the game while the other half wonders where this conversation is going exactly, and why he and Alan never talk about science or math, strangle that, but they never do.

“That is if you’re really serious about this relationship with Charlie?” Alan looks up at him not quite hiding his disapproval and Larry sighs inwardly. He knows it’s too much to ask that Alan be happy about this, that after all Alan acceptance is a minor miracle as far as Larry is concerned.

“Yes Alan.” Larry blocks Alan’s move with his knight. “I am quite serious about everything concerning Charles.”               

“Well then.” Alan moves into checkmate and for the life of him Larry can’t figure out how, “You’ll ask Charlie to marry you.”

Larry’s not actually conscious of making a noise but he’s pretty sure he squeaked because Alan looks at him strangely, “Excuse me.”

“You heard me.” Alan sounds very calm and matter a fact considering the conversation they’re having. “Make a honest man out of my son.”

Larry opens his mouth then closes it, when he realizes he really has nothing to say to that.

 

II.

“So are you?”

“Am I what?” Larry picks up box of books and with much effort manages to carry it across his office. Don picks up the next box and carries it with very little effort, a fact which Larry pretends not to notice.

Don sets the box down next to Larry’s “Are you going to ask Charlie to marry you?”

Larry sighs and sits on the box he’s just moves, pinching the bridge of his nose. He’s already feeling a headache coming on.

“Marriage is . . .” Larry moves his hand vaguely through the air. “It’s well, it’s fine and very commendable for others, but for me it’s . . . life is complicated and undo commitments tends to obscure the simple purity of the situation.”

Don sits on the box next to Larry. “And you don’t think Charlie would like something that’s highly ordered and ritualized, symbolizing your commitment to each other?”

He looks over at Larry and Larry looks at him for a long minute “Well when you put it like that . . .”  
Don sighs. “Charlie’s not going to ask you. It took just about everything he had in him to ask Amita, it was like, moving way out of his comfort zone and after she left . . . I just don’t think he’d be able to do it again.”  Don reaches over and pats Larry on the back. “Charlie loves you, and I’m pretty sure you love him.” Larry is quick to nod affirmative to that and Don smiles at him, “So totally separate from what me or Dad might have thought when you guys started this relationship, I think you should really consider it Larry. Think about whether it would make you happy, and think about whether it would make Charlie happy.”

Larry braids his fingers together in his lap and stares down at them, Don’s hand heavy on his back. “Alright.” He says softly, but he does mean it.

 

III.

Charlie’s doing really, really well these days.  He teaches all his classes, sees his advisees, presents at conferences, works with Don on cases. He’s putting on weight too and although Charlie bemoans the fact Larry actually prefers it to when Charlie’s all lines and angles. Alan still hasn’t been allowed to move out yet, and in the beginning Larry had feared it would be strange all three of them cohabiting, but he’d soon found that it wasn’t. Charlie spent less and less time there during the day, Alan was busy with his new job and that Larry quite frankly didn’t pay enough attention to the people he lived with to really notice much. Besides eating Alan’s cooking was much preferable to Charlie’s. 

There are the days too when Charlie gets home from the FBI, late at night, smelling like gunpowder residue. Larry is often already reading in bed and Charlie will crawl, fully clothed including shoes, onto the bed despite Larry’s protests. He’ll plaster himself against Larry, take his face between Charlie’s hands, and kiss him long and hard. Larry’s hands will come up then, twisting in Charlie’s stupidly long curls, pulling him close as Charlie’s tongue presses hot and needy into Larry’s mouth. Larry will move under the blankets, spreading his legs just enough for Charlie to lie between them. He runs his hands down Charlie’s back and peel off his coat, before throwing it on the floor. He’ll run his fingers around Charlie’s waist, enjoying the softness there, before pushing up Charlie’s t-shirt to run his fingers through the dark hair that covers Charlie’s chest and down his belly. Charlie will kiss down Larry’s throat and pulls open his pajama shirt to kiss his chest and Larry will tug off Charlie’s t-shirt and throw it on the floor as well. Often at this point Charlie will sit up to untie his shoes and drop them on the floor by the bed along with his socks before pulling down the covers and stripping off Larry’s pajama pants. He’ll palm Larry’s growing erection and kiss him, open mouthed wet and sloppy, before kissing down his neck. Larry’s will reach forward and loop his fingers in Charlie’s jeans pull the other man close, rub himself against Charlie’s still jean clad thigh enjoying the sharp jolts of pleasure/pain. He bites his lip and Charlie kisses behind his ear, down his throat, one hand cupping Larry’s ass rub at it, press Larry closer. Sometimes Charlie will push him flat on the bed at this point, use his hand and his mouth until Larry can’t think, can’t even see straight. Sometimes Charlie will kiss him once more deeply and then lean across to the bedside table to grab the lube. Then Charlie will fuck him, slow, hard and thorough, until they’re both soaked in sweat, Larry’s whole body is shaking and Charlie is biting out the swear words he never normally uses.  Either way, it follows the same pattern every time and Larry knows most people would find this boring but both he and Charlie find the repetition incredibly soothing.

Tonight has been one of those nights and Larry runs his fingers through Charlie’s sweat damp curls and watches him sleep. Charlie sleeps curled on his side and he looks unforgivably young like this and it always sends a pang of both deep affection and not-quite guilt through Larry. He thinks about Alan’s request now and the hundreds of reason and variables that have always kept him far away from the very idea of matrimony. He thinks of what Don had said about Charlie, about it making Charlie happy, about it being comforting to the younger man to have everything being ritualize and made certain in a way life hardly ever was. Charlie takes promises very seriously. he takes commitment very seriously. Larry knows that despite what Charlie might say, marriage would be soothing for him. He just wonders if Charlie really wants to marry him. Larry is keenly away that Charlie came to him only after his relationship with Amita had failed and that Charlie would always look for love in the social normative places. Charlie wants to be normal so desperately it almost hurts to watch him and Larry has never been normal. Even if Larry was straight he still wouldn’t be normal. One day another Amita will come into Charlie life and Larry’s not sure Charlie will choose him over the life Charlie feels like he should be having.

Larry shakes his head, and curls himself around Charlie’s body, kissing the other man lightly in the side of the head. He shouldn’t think like that, he should trust that Charlie means it when he says he loves Larry. He should do what will make Charlie happy; keep Charlie safe, because that’s what Larry does, because that’s what makes Larry happy. He has to make a decision and he’s just really, really hoping it’s going to be the right one in the end, for him, but especially for Charlie.

 

IV.

Larry feels sometimes like he’s spent the better part of his life watching Charlie do math, and that his life before he started observing Charlie was merely an anomaly in the over all pattern of his existance. Charlie is working on some programs for the FBI in the office which is far too large for him and Larry is curled up on one of the couches both watching Charlie work and pondering his own theories. He’s at rather an intellectual stale mate with himself and he’s not quite sure how he got there, which is vaguely troubling.

“Larry, Larry . . .” He looks up to see Charlie watching him looking amused. “You haven’t been listening have you?”

“I’m sorry Charles.” Larry gets up and perches on Charlie’s huge desk next to Charlie’s chair. “I was contemplating my next theoretical move, cosmologically speaking that is.”

“Oh yes?” Charlie looks up at Larry expectantly but Larry has nothing else to say about that at the moment and after a minute or two Charlie goes back to lecturing about whatever program he’s putting together. Larry listens patiently for several minutes while Charlie rambles on coming up with many colorful metaphors and ways of explaining the concepts that Larry doesn’t actually need having already grasped what Charlie’s attempting to do.

“Charles.”

Charlie looks up at him distractedly.“Yes Larry?”

“Would you consider marrying me?”

They stare at each other and Larry blinks rather taken aback himself. He calculates that this is the twenty-third time he’s thought about asking Charlie, but the first time it’s just come out. Charlie is gripping the arms of his chair so tightly his knuckles are white and his face as drained of color.

“Larry?” His voice is soft and strained and Larry decides this was a very bad idea.

“I am not saying you have to Charles.” Larry tells him quickly, “In fact you aren’t even obligated to contemplate it if it distresses you. Charles?”

Charlie lunges at him, then hands coming up to cup Larry’s face, he physically pushes Larry flat across his desk, ignoring the large amount of things that fall to the floor with a loud crash.  He presses against Larry and kiss him hard with surprising if fervent passion.

“Charles!”  Larry flails, “We are on your desk.”

“Larry” Charlie’s voice is soft and breathless and filled with wonder. “I mean, I didn’t expect . . . I didn’t think you . . .”

Charlie kisses him again and a small part of Larry’s mind feels slightly smug he’s managed to reduce Charlie to a state of incoherence.

“Charles this is not the place . . .” Larry manages to push the young man off him and sits up and then because he’s not that sensible after all, he kisses Charlie back just as hard.

“I love you.” Charlie breathes against Larry mouth, and Larry’s hands on Charlie’s face tighten.

“I am going to deduce from your reaction that you aren’t adverse to the idea of us marrying?” Larry pulls back and watches Charlie careful and Charlie looks nervous again, suddenly small and very young in a way that makes Larry heart ache but he looks up and nods finally.

“Yeah Larry.” Charlie swallows, licks his lips, “yes I’d like to marry you.”

They stare at each other for a few more minutes, Larry at rather a loss of what to do now that he’s ask and Charlie accepted. He thinks belatedly he should have gotten a ring or something. He makes to leave and Charlie grabs at his hand. “Larry.”  Larry stops and turns back. “Please can we have a short engagement?” Charlie eyes are pleading and very frighten and Larry’s face softens and he leans forward and kisses Charlie again before pulling back.

“I think that would be fine Charles.” Charlie smiles at him and Larry wonders what the hell he’s just done.

  
V.

Charlie’s freaking out when Larry gets home or at least that’s what the harassed look on Alan’s face tells Larry.

Alan’s stirring gravy in the kitchen when Larry walks him and he gives Larry a look. “You asked him?”

Larry blinks at him. “Yes.”

“And he said?”

“He said yes, Alan.” He looks around the kitchen, “Where is Charlie?”

Alan rolls his eyes, “Where do you think. He was all excited when he got home and happy and then he started thinking about it and next thing you know he starts over thinking it and then he start worrying, and one thing led to another . . .”

“He’s in the garage.” Larry finishes for him. Alan gives him another look and Larry holds up both hands. “Oh no, you are not blaming me. I will remind you that this was your idea not mine.”

“Well you want to marry him, don’t you?” Alan gives him a long piercing stare before opening the oven to check the roast.

Larry sighs and runs his fingers through his hair.  “I love Charles.” He says plainly because there is no sense in denying it at this point. “And I do want to make him happy.”

Alan’s face softens at that. “He is happy Larry.” He straights up to continue stirring the gravy, “he’s just being Charlie. Go talk to him, he’ll get over it.”

Larry heads for the garage to find Charlie frantically scribbling on chalkboards, work for Don Larry notes with relief, but still.

“Charles.” He says softly and Charlie whorls around to stare at him.

“Hi” Charlie voice sounds high and breathless and he’s nervously moving his chalk from hand to hand “Larry.”

Larry nods at him, smiling faintly and moves across the room to sit on the edge of the table that doesn’t have maps and notes and books on it. 

“What are you doing Charles?” He asks softly and Charlie spins to stare at the chalkboards again.

“I . . .” He waves his arms at it, vaguely. “Work, I’m doing work. Very important work.”

The chalk starts moving again, and Larry takes the small box out of his pocket. “Charles.”

Charlie turns again and Larry sets the box down next to him on the table. Charlie stares at it going suddenly very still.

“What’s that?” He asks although the way his voice shakes means he already knows.

“An engagement ring.” Larry says softly. “I apologies for it being late.” He doesn’t look at Charlie instead he opts to look at the floor and after a long minute he hears Charlie move across the room.

“Larry.” Charlie says quietly and Larry looks up to see Charlie holding the box. Charlie doesn’t say anything else he only leans forward and kisses Larry, sweetly on the lips. “We should go inside and eat dinner.” Charlie says when they part, catching Larry’s hand with the one not holding the box. Larry can only nod then, and let Charlie pull him back into the house.

 

VI.

One of Larry’s favorite things about living with Charlie, beside Charlie himself and possible Alan, was the Koi pond. Larry had always been fond of it and he found having it in his back yard, now that it was his back yard, was especially soothing.  It was a good thing too because nothing about today had been soothing. Not the noise, or people he didn’t know, or everyone rushing around. Certainly not he fuss Alan had made over the flowers, cake and food. Larry wasn’t at all happy about the suit either, although he’d drawn the line at dress shoes and was wearing his usual sneakers. Still the suit was uncomfortable and he was counting down the hours until he could take the tie off.

“Larry?” Larry looks up to see Charlie standing a couple feet away watching him. Charlie is Larry can thing of no other word for it, beautiful. The suit fits him perfectly, he’d cut his hair to manageable length because Larry had wanted him to, and he looks at ease in a way Larry knows he doesn’t. There are lots of things about today that have been trying for Charlie, Larry knows, but Charlie is happy, really and truly happy. Don had been right, Larry thinks, and this is what Charlie had wanted all along. Larry watches Charlie watch him, dark eyes made even darker by the fine, heavy clothes of the suit jacket, which highlights his shoulders and, waist in a way Larry finds quite distracting. Larry lets his mind roam to other traditions that will take place later tonight when everyone leaves and Alan goes to spend the night with Don, just this once. He wonders what they will do and thinks he’s always wanted to make love to Charlie in the floor in the living room, just as long as they put down some blankets to protect against rug burns.

“Larry.” Larry jerks himself back to reality and Charlie is holding out his hand, smiling down at him. “Are you ready?”

Behind Charlie Larry sees Megan coming towards them probably sent by Alan or the Rabbi to figure out where they’ve been hiding. He looks up at Charlie again relaxed and happy, waiting for him and from now on only him. Larry takes Charlie hand and stands.

“Yes Charles.” He tells him softly  “I think I am.” 

 

 

 


End file.
